ived any news; they were, so to say, at the bottom of
a cellar, in a walled hole, where they were anxiously awaiting
either deliverance or the finishing stroke. For the last two days
the insurgents, who were scouring the country, had cut off all
communication. Plassans found itself isolated from the rest of France.
It felt that it was surrounded by a region in open rebellion, where the
tocsin was ever ringing and the "Marseillaise" was ever roaring like
a river that has overflowed its banks. Abandoned to its fate and
shuddering with alarm the town lay there like some prey which would
prove the reward of the victorious party. The strollers on the Cours
Sauvaire were ever swaying between fear and hope according as they
fancied that they could see the blouses of insurgents or the uniforms
of soldiers at the Grand'-Porte. Never had sub-prefecture, pent within
tumble-down walls, endured more agonising torture.

Towards two o'clock it was rumoured that the Coup d'Etat had failed,
that the prince-president was imprisoned at Vincennes, and that Paris
was in the hands of the most advanced demagogues. It was reported also
that Marseilles, Toulon, Draguignan, the entire South, belonged to the
victorious insurrectionary army. The insurgents would arrive in the
evening and put Plassans to the sword.

Thereupon a deputation repaired to the town-hall to expostulate with
the Municipal Commission for closing the gates, whereby they would only
irritate the insurgents. Rougon, who was losing his head, defended his
order with all his remaining strength. This locking of the gates seemed
to him one of the most ingenious acts of his administration; he advanced
the most convincing arguments in its justification. But the others
embarrassed him by their questions, asking him where were the soldiers,
the regiment that he had promised. Then he began to lie, and told them
flatly that he had promised nothing at all. The non-appearance of this
legendary regiment, which the inhabitants longed for with such eagerness
that they had actually dreamt of its arrival, was the chief cause of the
panic. Well-informed people even named the exact spot on the high road
where the soldiers had been butchered.

At four o'clock Rougon, followed by Granoux, again repaired to the
Valqueyras mansion. Small bands, on their way to join the insurgents at
Orcheres, still passed along in the distance, through the valley of the
Viorne. Throughout the day urchins climbed the